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beyond retro,
There are plenty of good retro shops in London from Absolute Vintage to Bang Bang!, but none are as big and bad as Beyond Retro (at the end of Cheshire Street furthest away from Brick Lane), a huge warehouse-sized place with over 10,000 garments that has the air of a jumble sale . It’s particularly good for bags – you can see where all the accessory designers get their inspiration. There’s also an excellent selection of shoes, old-skool trainers and cowboy boots. Best of all is the properly cheap prices, which start at about a fiver for a 1950s printed skirt.
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diverse,
This Upper Street boutique was one of the first shops to bring designer labels to Islington. Eighteen years after opening it’s still going strong with a constantly changing mix of colourful and eclectic labels. In the women’s shop (294 Upper Street), the line-up includes concoctions from Missoni, Chloé, Marc by Marc Jacobs and jeans by Paper Denim & Cloth and Rogan. A small but wisely chosen range of accessories, including Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes, finishes off the selection. And don’t miss the upstairs. The men’s shop has a good mix of jeans and T-shirt labels.
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steinberg & tolkein,
A huge treasure trove of a shop and something of a legend, frequented by Vogue editors, models and designers alike. The clothes, spanning 1890 to 1990, are a mixed bag: you could find beautifully preserved Pucci, Westwood or Ossie Clark, but you need to sift to find the real gems.
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virginia vintage,
There are scores of vintage shops in London but none have quite the luste, charm or quality of stock as Virginia Bates’ elegant Holland Park shop. A beaded curtain leads out int a small garden, down in the basement there’s a pale cloud of floaty petticoats, chiffons and laces. Bates selects exquisite pieces from Victorian times through the 1940s and all stock is in perfect nick. Prices aren’t cheap - from £350 for a Victorian petticoat to £3000 for a beaded 1920s flapper dress but then the quality here is excellent.
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manolo blahnik,
Manolo opened his discreet Chelsea salon in 1972. Given the master cobbler’s mythic reputation, it’s surprisingly low-key (although you do have to ring a bell to be buzzed in). Although Blahnik is best known for killer heels, all sorts of different designs – from pancake-flat metallic-lizard sandals to polka-dot canvas slingbacks – are casually strewn around the premises.
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